Paint, collage and copper foil on canvas. 30 x 40cm.
Hallowe'en, or Samhain in Gaelic, (pronounced Sow'an) was the most widely celebrated of the ancient Celtic festivals. It was a celebration of the harvest, and of the closing of the year. This dark time also had had many magical and mythical associations. Samhain was also the time when the 'The Veil' which separates the world of the living from that of the dead was at it's thinnest, allowing the spirits of the ancestors to pass through and mingle with the living.
This work was inspired by the surface of an Ogham Stone, and the colours of the landscape of the sacred site of Tara in Ireland. The spiral is the natural form of growth, and in every culture has become a symbol of eternal life. In this piece the spirals and star symbols are taken from Irish and Scottish megalithic rock drawings, and here represent the spirits of the ancestors on the other side of The Veil.
Ref: 1104